My name is Haoyan Duan , and I am a Chinese first-year BA Architecture student at the Manchester School of Architecture. I have a strong interest in site- and landscape-led design,
Posted 3 Mar 2026 14:34
Haoyan D
Group 14
BUILT TO BELONG
Session 6: Collaborator Meeting and Workshop Planning
This week’s session focused on our meeting with the collaborator and on clarifying how the upcoming workshop should be structured. It was a useful discussion that helped us move from vague ideas towards something more organised and realistic.
A key part of the conversation was about participation. While the ideal number would be around fifteen people, we discussed that the main requirement from the university’s point of view is to have at least eight participants over the age of eighteen. This brought ethics and safeguarding into the discussion, especially around how information will be collected, explained, and stored safely. It was a reminder that community engagement is not only about generating ideas, but also about making sure the process is responsible and well managed.
We also talked through how we want to present our ideas during the workshop. Rather than arriving with a fixed proposal, we agreed that it would be better to keep things open and allow participants to shape the direction of the project. Floor plans, site images and precedent references were suggested as useful tools to help people visualise possibilities and respond more easily. We also discussed print formats and how large the plans should be, thinking about how people could interact with them through stickers, notes or annotations.
One of the most interesting parts of the discussion was around the actual purpose of the space. Although the project is connected to a church setting, the conversation raised the possibility that the final outcome may be more community-focused than strictly religious. This felt important, as it showed that the brief is still developing and that the workshop will play a real role in defining what the project becomes.
By the end of the session, tasks were becoming clearer. Images and screenshots from the meeting were being shared, a written summary was planned, and responsibilities for the blog post and follow-up were assigned. Overall, this meeting helped us feel more prepared and more aligned as a group.
A productive and necessary step forward. Less about final answers, more about setting up the right questions.
This week’s session focused on our meeting with the collaborator and on clarifying how the upcoming workshop should be structured. It was a useful discussion that helped us move from vague ideas towards something more organised and realistic.
A key part of the conversation was about participation. While the ideal number would be around fifteen people, we discussed that the main requirement from the university’s point of view is to have at least eight participants over the age of eighteen. This brought ethics and safeguarding into the discussion, especially around how information will be collected, explained, and stored safely. It was a reminder that community engagement is not only about generating ideas, but also about making sure the process is responsible and well managed.
We also talked through how we want to present our ideas during the workshop. Rather than arriving with a fixed proposal, we agreed that it would be better to keep things open and allow participants to shape the direction of the project. Floor plans, site images and precedent references were suggested as useful tools to help people visualise possibilities and respond more easily. We also discussed print formats and how large the plans should be, thinking about how people could interact with them through stickers, notes or annotations.
One of the most interesting parts of the discussion was around the actual purpose of the space. Although the project is connected to a church setting, the conversation raised the possibility that the final outcome may be more community-focused than strictly religious. This felt important, as it showed that the brief is still developing and that the workshop will play a real role in defining what the project becomes.
By the end of the session, tasks were becoming clearer. Images and screenshots from the meeting were being shared, a written summary was planned, and responsibilities for the blog post and follow-up were assigned. Overall, this meeting helped us feel more prepared and more aligned as a group.
A productive and necessary step forward. Less about final answers, more about setting up the right questions.
Posted 26 Mar 2026 09:44